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The Reformation Of Public Memory: Campaign For Redress Shifts Public Memory Of Comfort Women Issue, Sara Shields

Student Research Poster Presentations 2021

The comfort station system established by the Japanese during World War II institutionalized sexual violence against women in order to supposedly prevent both violent rapes and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among Japanese soldiers. There are still arguments and denial over the issue of comfort women today, stating that these women were there of their own free will and were not enslaved. Until recently, they were regarded as “military prostitutes,” and were viewed as a disgrace by their respective cultures. However, evidence gathered since the early 1990s indicates that not only were comfort women sexual slaves of the Imperial …